Rob Montana: Where have you gone, Eric Clapton?

Sunday

Mar 23, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 23, 2008 at 11:21 PM

I am seeking an answer — though the question could be pointed at a variety of musical legends — to what has happened to iconic music. There is a lack of quality music on the airwaves, something that definitely needs to be remedied.

Rob Montana

A while back, a fairly famous musical duo asked a similar question, about a sports star, in a tune best known for its appearance in “The Graduate.”

Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” was the song asking the question, wondering where Joe DiMaggio, the N.Y. Yankee great, had gone. I am seeking an answer — though the question could be pointed at a variety of musical legends — to what has happened to iconic music. There is a lack of quality music on the airwaves, something that definitely needs to be remedied.

I know there are plenty of smaller, more obscure bands churning out a quality sound, but those artists aren’t finding their way to radio. I recently made the switch to listening to a Top 40-type radio station to one offering mostly classic rock songs, and the difference between today’s hits and yesterday’s favorites is startling.

There was an era of songwriting and composing from the late ’60s through the early ’80s that, to me, is simply the best. The lyrics were full of passion and the music behind them really moved people.

“Every morning when I wake, a feeling soon begins to overtake me. Ringing in my ears resounds through my brain; it finally surrounds me. There is fire, there is life, there is passion, fever and fury. There is love and there is hate, there is longing, anger and worry.” — from “The Core,” written by Eric Clapton and Marcy Levy

That emotion is missing from much of the popular artists’s work these days.

It seems like today’s hitmakers are simply part of slick, well-put-together marketing machines. It’s about a look or an image, with publicists orchestrating drama to generate buzz about their client. I have no problem with that, as a concept, because that’s been done for years, but it used to be people would be talking about the music or a performance — not how the superstar forgot to wear underwear five or six times.

And the music was not written to fit into a niche, the way it seems to be today. It was written as a way for musicians to get the angst out. There was creativity, there was truth and there was feeling.

That’s just missing these days.

The last era to really do that was when grunge hit — and that’s been awhile, too.

Sure, these days, you’ve got the emo movement, but most of the songs coming from that genre just feel manufactured. Probably the closest thing we’ve got going for the music industry, in terms of raw realism, is rap. That niche, however, also has plenty of throwaway, cookie cutter artists.

“Standing at the crossroads, trying to read the signs, To tell me which way I should go to find the answer, And all the time I know, Plant your love and let it grow.” — from “Let It Grow,” written by Eric Clapton.

I feel like we are at a crossroads musically, and maybe it is just with the garbage pouring out of the radio stations down on earth. If somebody told me, even five years ago, that I’d pay for radio one day, I would have told them they were crazy. Now, it seems like satellite or Internet may be the way to go. There is choice, there are options, and those venues also offer new sounds and artists a chance to be heard, particularly on the Web.

Music has the ability to wrap us in comfort when we’re sad. It can pump us up, it can amplify romance and it can make us move our feet. It’s time for passion to come back to the business, but maybe — instead of the musicians doing the stirring — it’s time for us, the listeners, to start the revolution and get rid of the blandness the industry is forcing upon us.

“Nobody’s right till somebody’s wrong. Nobody’s weak till somebody’s strong. No one gets lucky till luck comes along. Nobody’s lonely till somebody’s gone.” — from “It’s In The Way That You Use It,” written by Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson.